Taiwan’s inflation rate will not break 2% in 2021. That’s according to Taiwan’s Central Bank Governor Yang Chin-long, who made the comments while responding to questions at the legislature on Monday morning.
Lawmakers say they are concerned by rising prices in Taiwan. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) grew by 2.58% year-on-year in October — the highest single-month hike in nearly nine years. Legislators also point out that the inflation rate has surpassed 2% three months in a row.
Lawmakers asked Yang if Taiwan’s inflation was related to the three-decade high 6.2% inflation America saw in October. In response, Yang said that the reasons for Taiwan and the United States’ unusually high rates of inflation were different. Yang says that prices in the US are climbing because of supply chain issues stemming from backlogged shipping ports.
Yang says that the sudden spike in prices in Taiwan is temporary. He says that Taiwan’s CPI has been particularly high because 17 items in Taiwan’s consumer price index increased sharply, and that’s why indicators were so high in recent months. Yang says prices will come back down next year.